Rees-Mogg suggested officials working in the U.K. Treasury were seeking to keep the country in the EU customs union, and asked Brexit Minister Steve Baker on Thursday to confirm the allegation based on an off-the-record conversation with think tanker Charles Grant, who heads the Centre for European Reform.

Baker on Friday apologized to MPs for saying Rees-Mogg's account of the remarks was "essentially correct."

Speaking to BBC on Saturday, Rees-Mogg stood by his original claim, saying: "With the referendum and with the EU the Treasury has gone back to making forecasts. It was politically advantageous for them in the past. It is the same now ... So yes, I do think they are fiddling the figures."

Grant said he was "surprised" that Rees-Mogg had declined to apologize, saying it was normal for civil servants to speak to those working in think tanks. "That's how think tanks work," he said. "There's nothing wrong with that."

Mogg also said he fully backed Prime Minister Theresa May, describing her as "wonderfully stoic against all that's thrown at her."

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to clarify the nature of Jacob Rees-Mogg's accusations.

Amongst many others including those posts were your user-nick has been used….

ALL are Priscilla. Expect Priscilla to use new aliases SOON.
Thank you for the new ones Priscilla. 🙂

Posted on 2/3/18 | 2:22 PM CET

EUhoo

@BE AWARE

Resistance is futile. You will be “Priscillated”! 😀

Posted on 2/3/18 | 3:27 PM CET

Anthony Chambers

They are clearly producing the figures based on some assumptions. For example the WTO figure is based on applying the current EU external tariff and not having any other deals. Clearly that would never happen. In the event of WTO and no deals we would obviously set the external tarriff at zero. If you plugged the same population growth as the EU model and WTO tariff rates of zero the modelling would give a higher economic growth, not lower.

In fact population is the main causal difference between the models. If you controlled for that I would imagine the differences would be truely tiny.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 4:06 PM CET

tony

the sub headline reads;

‘Jacob Rees-Mogg said he stood by claims of pro-Brexit bias in UK Treasury.’

Surely that is the OPPOSITE of what he said? He was accusing them, rightly, of anti brexit reports which the treasury under Osborn were guilty of in the form of ‘project fear’ and which continues to this day under Hammond.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 4:14 PM CET

EUhoo

@Anthony Chambers

Shouldn’t the Cabinet have provided those parameters to Treasury when requesting the forecasts? It shows that not even they know what the Cabinet wants!

The Brexiteers among them should produce a set of parameters, agree them with the Cabinet and request Treasury a new forecast to be made available to the Commons before their vote. Unless they have no confidence in the economic sense of their own scenario.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 4:16 PM CET

YellowSubmarine

A difficult call, the actual numbers produced may be a best guess given the presumptions made for various trading options. The spin comes by only showing some options and implying they are the ONLY ones. Something that the remain camp in UK has done from day one. A typical example of this is the recent Stephen Kinnock article.

There is no assessment of a special deal that has been set out by May and is looking increasingly likley as various Brussels/EU spokespersons accept this is what will happen. Junckers ‘privileged partner’ trade deal.

By only including some options and ignoring others they are showing bias, even if technically the have not deliberately fudged the numbers in assessments they have produced. The study was designed only to show that any brexit outcome will be negative.

Those asking for this work to be done must have known this, and it must have been a deliberate act to produce a study with only half the data required to make it worth doing.

So from that perspective Mogg is correct.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 4:20 PM CET

saintixe

They said there was something of the night about Lord Howard.

JRM has the same, arrogantly displayed.Michael Howard was unaware of it, certainly not happy with it. Rees-Mogg is proud of it.
Unashamed of his attempts to revive a past where, yes, Western Europe was sort of ruling the World. Blissfully unmindful of a reality which included slavery filling the coffers of his ancestors, half of its humanity treated as chattel, children considered fair game for work and worse. This is the reality of the world JRM and his merry brexiteers pine for.
Leave voters dream of better days for an easier life; Brexiteers dream of days where life was easy for the betters of the land.
Say what may, at one point Leavers will realize their leaders have feet of clay. It will not be pretty when it happens.
In fact it will be something of a very dark night for Britain.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 4:38 PM CET

XKM

@
Guesswhat
Looks like we are weeks before the split of Tories into two parties. What’s gonna be their names? Ideas… I can start with A True Cons, Perservatives,…
———
Not preservatives, but preservatives

Posted on 2/3/18 | 4:46 PM CET

bluebell

XKM
@
“Looks like we are weeks before the split of Tories into two parties. What’s gonna be their names? Ideas… I can start with A True Cons, Preservatives,…”

Well it cannot be the Monster Raving Loony Party as that is already established.

Amongst many others including those posts were your user-nick has been used….

ALL are Priscilla. Expect Priscilla to use new aliases SOON.
Thank you for the new ones Priscilla. 🙂

Posted on 2/3/18 | 5:16 PM CET

Angie

Posted on 2/3/18 | 5:22 PM CET

FINN

After the usual huff and puff, as always, our English chums will do what they do best: bend the knee, tug the forelock, and intone ‘yes, guv’nor’…

Posted on 2/3/18 | 5:30 PM CET

EUhoo

The Government’s Own Brexit Analysis Says The UK Will Be Worse Off In Every Scenario Outside The EU

Exclusive: BuzzFeed News has seen a new Brexit impact assessment, which says leaving the EU will adversely hit almost every sector and every UK region.
Posted on January 29, 2018, at 9:30 p.m.

The government’s new analysis of the impact of Brexit says the UK would be worse off outside the European Union under every scenario modelled, BuzzFeed News can reveal.

The assessment, which is titled “EU Exit Analysis – Cross Whitehall Briefing” and dated January 2018, looked at three of the most plausible Brexit scenarios based on existing EU arrangements.

Under a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU, UK growth would be 5% lower over the next 15 years compared to current forecasts, according to the analysis.

The “no deal” scenario, which would see the UK revert to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, would reduce growth by 8% over that period. The softest Brexit option of continued single-market access through membership of the European Economic Area would, in the longer term, still lower growth by 2%.

These calculations do not take into account any short-term hits to the economy from Brexit, such as the cost of adjusting the economy to new customs arrangements.

The assessment seen by BuzzFeed News is being kept tightly guarded inside government. It was prepared by officials across Whitehall for the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU), and is reportedly being presented to key ministers in one-to-one meetings this week ahead of discussion at the Brexit cabinet subcommittee next week.

Asked why the prime minister was not making the analysis public, a DExEU source told BuzzFeed News: “Because it’s embarrassing.”

Even though the analysis assumes that the UK will agree a trade deal with the US, roll over dozens of the EU’s current trade agreements, and consider loosening regulations after Brexit, there is no scenario that does not leave the country worse off.

Officials believe the methodology for the new assessment is better than that used for similar analyses before the referendum.

The January 2018 analysis looked only at existing EU arrangements, which means bespoke arrangements have yet to be modelled. Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly said she is seeking a “deep and special partnership with the EU”.

The other main findings of the analysis include:

• Almost every sector of the economy included in the analysis would be negatively impacted in all three scenarios, with chemicals, clothing, manufacturing, food and drink, and cars and retail the hardest hit. The analysis found that only the agriculture sector under the WTO scenario would not be adversely affected.

• Every UK region would also be affected negatively in all the modelled scenarios, with the North East, the West Midlands, and Northern Ireland (before even considering the possibility of a hard border) facing the biggest falls in economic performance.

• There is a risk that London’s status as a financial centre could be severely eroded, with the possibilities available under an FTA not much different to those in the WTO option.

• On the plus side, the analysis assumes in all scenarios that a trade deal with the US will be concluded, and that it would benefit GDP by about 0.2% in the long term. Trade deals with other non-EU countries and blocs, such as China, India, Australia, the Gulf countries, and the nations of Southeast Asia would add, in total, a further 0.1% to 0.4% to GDP over the long term.

The government has found itself in repeated difficulty over the existence – or lack – of Brexit impact studies. Last year, the Brexit secretary David Davis suggested that dozens had been carried out “in excruciating detail”, but after a Commons vote forced the publication of these assessments, he told MPs he had been misunderstood and they did not exist after all. DExEU published a series of broad “sectoral analyses” instead.

The biggest negative impact comes from the UK’s decision to leave both the EU’s customs union and the single market – the issue at the heart of the Conservative Party’s ongoing internal strife over Brexit.

Leaving these arrangements creates what the analysis calls “non-tariff barriers” to trade, such as loss of market access in certain sectors and new customs and border checks and practices.

Some of these can be minimised if Britain were to remain in the single market via the EEA, and the impact can also be partly offset through domestic policy or trade deals with the US and others, but the losses cannot be eliminated altogether once the UK is outside the customs union.

This new analysis suggests that there could be opportunity for the UK in agreeing trade deals with non-EU countries and deregulating in areas such as the environment, product standards, and employment law.

However, the analysis also casts doubt on the idea that these benefits would be enough to mitigate the losses to the economy caused by leaving the single market and customs union. Moving away from the existing set of rules and standards would also make it harder to trade with the EU in the future, and would be politically controversial domestically.

This specific debate risks deepening the conflict inside the Tory party between those, such as chancellor Philip Hammond, who want to remain more closely aligned to the EU for years, and the hardline Brexiteers, led by backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg.

A government spokesperson told BuzzFeed News: “We have already set out that the government is undertaking a wide range of ongoing analysis in support of our EU exit negotiations and preparations.

“We have been clear that we are not prepared to provide a running commentary on any aspect of this ongoing internal work and that ministers have a duty not to publish anything that could risk exposing our negotiation position.”

A government source said: “As part of its preparations for leaving the European Union, officials from across Whitehall are undertaking a wide range of ongoing analysis.

“An early draft of this next stage of analysis has looked at different off-the-shelf arrangements that currently exist as well as other external estimates. It does not, however, set out or measure the details of our desired outcome – a new deep and special partnership with the EU – or predict the conclusions of the negotiations.

“It also contains a significant number of caveats and is hugely dependant on a wide range of assumptions which demonstrate that significantly more work needs to be carried out to make use of this analysis and draw out conclusions.”

Posted on 2/3/18 | 5:35 PM CET

French Expat

wow- Listen Mr little wow with “big pants” from tiny Britain, you are at our mercy right now whether you like it or not.
Forget NAFTA and all that, act too smart and we will break the UK up into different countries. You can only talk, no action. If you don’t follow our rules We will First enact a border on Ireland and that will break up the UK.
Then we will take Gibraltar.
Actually Mr little wow with big pants, you are not even in control of your country.
The remainer supporters are in control. Not poor brexiteers. Most elite are remainer supporters.
You think they will allow you to do what you want ? No ! .
As long as we keep firm and threaten restrictions, remainers themselves will crush you brexiteers.
The elite in the UK have crushed the masses for a long time. They will do it to you again.
I am very okay with remain supporters. They are better than you.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 5:38 PM CET

Saintixe

It is not the EU who is asking for a transition, whatever implementation, name game; it is Britain.

It is Britain who
1- voted Leave
2- got itself T May as PM
3- decided on the date for Article 50 to be triggered
4- asked for a delay/interim period
5-may or may not have rather worrying Brexit end game studies.

Brussels has never been shy about a lose lose situation.

We have parachutes. We are preparing and being prepared.

You are the one who wants an offer. You voted Leave. When your partner serves you with divorce papers stating he does not intend to change his mind but still wants to go to your parents Skiing chalet: do you say naturally, welcome, be my guest or do you voice in a few chosen expletives as why cherry picking is out of the question?

You Left. This is a divorce and yes, divorces are by and large nasty. By definition.

We split. We have split.

You are welcome to renting your own chalet on your own terms.
Unless you really, really need this 21 months delay in which case, beggars cannot be choosers.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 5:46 PM CET

tpk

Sadly there is no strategy here on May’s side: If at least the ambiguity was deliberate! But it is paralytic, instead: A completely fractuted Tory party which cannot agree on anything.

German FAZ had an excellent analysis on this very question: May is mortally wounded as a leader but the Bojos of this world are holding their fire for now as they know that anyone who presides over Brexit will stumble in the end.

US papers had nice analyses about the leaked papers drawn up by Davis’ team: The real news is not the content (3 bad options, no surprise) but the fact that May’s team felt they had to keep their own analysis so secret: Single meetings with a chosen number of cabinet members: No copies, no notes.

Why? May knows she has a very weak hand – internally and vis-a-vis Barnier. That is why “creative ambiguity” is all she has left.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 5:49 PM CET

Anthony Chambers

The may bot is just a dead woman walking, so sad.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 6:28 PM CET

YellowSubmarine

@tpk Sadly there is no strategy here on May’s side: If at least the ambiguity was deliberate! But it is paralytic, instead: A completely fractuted Tory party which cannot agree on anything.

Strange is it not, that considering the lack of strategy, how much things have changed over the last 18 months.

The UK was told that the EU had much bigger fish to fry than the UK and would ignore it’s demands for a new deal. The EU project was much too big and important for it to worry about UK.

Then the propaganda kicked in with Brussels using all it’s political might to stop brexit, something that does not sound like the actions of those who are not worried about UK’s ability to negotiate.

There was also the time-scale needed for a deal, quite often this was measured in decades yet today we are looking at not just agreeing a deal but also a transition period. Something that the EU has never attempted or granted before and all done in less than 4 years.

Now, not only have EU dropped their suggestion that UK can walk away but insist we stay in close regulatory alignment and continue to follow ECJ rulings and laws. UK has also cleared the stage one talks that were designed purely to make leaving look as difficult as possible and again stop brexit.

All these concessions and changes to original estimates have supposedly been achieved without a plan and a weak government.

Either the no plan assessment of government is wrong, and more project fear/opposition party spin, or the EU are a bunch of spineless pussy-cats.

Given how adept Brussels are in a fist fight, and the tactics they are prepared to use, I am inclined to think the progress is due to the former rather than the latter. 😉

Posted on 2/3/18 | 7:01 PM CET

French Expat

What has this to do with treeza being on the brink of getting the boot from her own party? BTW, the UK keeps burning their citizens alive in Grenfell Towers instead … Oh yeah.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 7:10 PM CET

French Expat

British Empire CHILD KILLER !
A BRITISH GENERAL SHOT DEAD 1000 INNOCENT CHILDREN IN BRITISH INDIA
During a “Gallianwala baog massacre”

BRITISH EMPIRE IRISH KILLERS !
During an Irish famine in the 1850’s, the Greedy British Empire shipped forcefully at gunpoint food out of Ireland !

Posted on 2/3/18 | 7:11 PM CET

Brian

@ Saintixe
You sound like you’re taking it very personally. Do you personally have a vested interest in this?

Posted on 2/3/18 | 7:19 PM CET

Jos Kuipers

This has to be the worst ant-uk / anti-british website I have ever seen.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 7:23 PM CET

Peter2

Treasury figures aren’t correct, so Rees-Mogg must have the correct ones..
If so he could quantify hope and opportunity.

Posted on 2/3/18 | 7:26 PM CET

XKM

@Jos Kuipers
This has to be the worst ant-uk / anti-british website I have ever seen.
————–
You are wrong my friend, this newspaper is not anti-british it is a newspaper that reports news as they are, and in any case brexitears are not British, they are Putins Muppets!

Posted on 2/3/18 | 8:34 PM CET

Real French Expat

The before posts Are not by me !
Why will I say that to wow, who has not posted anything to me in this article ??
And why will I say the same thing again what I’ve already said before !!

Posted on 2/3/18 | 8:43 PM CET

Real French Expat

– Imposter French Expat,
Maybe You might be Priscilla.
Okay, on second thoughts, It is fine if you post as me, because I don’t have time to post always.
You can spread propaganda against them. As they spread it against us.
It’s okay !

Posted on 2/3/18 | 8:48 PM CET

John C. Ojones

“So yes, I do think they are fiddling the figures.”

Yes, you are right…
Rees-Mogg is not only a a tw@t of the first magnitude, but also a paranoid.
The poor thing should visit a shrink ASAP

Posted on 2/3/18 | 10:59 PM CET

Anthony Chambers

@fake Anthony Chambers: Sod off. I have nothing bad to say against T. May. Other than her being perhaps the most unlucky prime minister in history to have to be responsible for cleaning up the mess made by the UK and EU government’s remain proposal to the British people.

Instead of sensibly adjusting freedom of movement rules so that all benefits could have been removed prior to 5 years of residency, cutting back on QMV, allowing a two speed Europe, fixing the eurozone banking union, preparing a proper transfer union for eurozone countries, supporting Southern EU countries rather than whipping them and allowing the ECJ to be reigned back to areas that were actually agreed in the treaties, rather than the legislative creep that has resulted in the EU having legal authority in areas that were never agreed originally.

We are where we are. The decision was made, so hopefully we can make the best of it.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 1:12 AM CET

Anthony Chambers

If you pro-EU lot want to put a cat amongst the pigeons, dig out David Camerons original wish list and offer it without the preconditions from before.

I know it is impossible because everyone will believe that the EU has caved in. Just like it is impossible for the UK to not Brexit.

french expat! Have you got your white flags ready for when it all goes wrong? That little Englishman as you call him, is worth a hundred frogs and expats. He may seem odd to you lot, but he is growing on the Brits more and more each day. He is the man we have been looking for, one who tells the truth and stands by what he says. Now where will you find someone like that in europe, Russia?

Posted on 2/4/18 | 2:06 AM CET

Priscilla du C.Ojones

@John C. Ojones

Hello Priscilla. 🙂

Posted on 2/4/18 | 9:39 AM CET

Anthony Chambers

@Saintixe: I am pretty sure the EU is asking for a 21 month transition period, it is in their negotiating guidelines. It helps with the whole €45bn.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 9:43 AM CET

GuptaG

There can be no FoM during any implementation period.
Low cost European labor continues to come into the UK and is keeping wages down.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 9:50 AM CET

GuptaG

The UK has said that; unless there is an agreement then there will be nothing to implement and therefore no implementation period.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 9:52 AM CET

Jos Kuipers

@XKM

Its blatantly obvious. Its a website owned by Germans and based in Brussels.
Its full of people (like yourself) who obviously have no real interests in BREXIT other than to slag of the UK and its people.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:00 AM CET

Jos Kuipers

@XKM

YOU and your attitude, and that of many others on this website is very much in the minority in the EU. You’re simply xenophobic. You offer no solutions you just offer a stream of hatred. You propaganda and venom is on a par with people from 75 years ago.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:03 AM CET

Priscilla du Bleu

@Guesswhat
“Looks like we are weeks before the split of Tories into two parties. What’s gonna be their names? Ideas… I can start with A True Cons, Perservatives,…”

My suggestion would be ‘Pervertatives’ :-D. Whatever else economical suicide is, perverted appears to rank among the top 3 terms that come to mind.

Other than that, what the walking talking germ JRM actually is stating, that the maybutt not only has no control over her own cabinet / the government, the government itself has no control over their own institution when they start claiming they deliberately lie and manipulate.

I wonder if they comprehend the irony of placing themselves in the middle between a hard rock (our civil servants are simply too incompetent for their jobs) and the deep blue sea (our civil servants are competent but unleashed, disloyal and manipulative, and it took us morons AKA government 1.5 years to even detect this)

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:13 AM CET

Anthony Chambers

The trezza may bot is just a dead woman walking, so sad. ‘innit’.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:18 AM CET

Stan

@Jos Kuipers
“This has to be the worst ant-uk / anti-british website I have ever seen.”

Correction, it is the best anti-Brit website. It is intentional and they do it very well.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:32 AM CET

Jos Kuipers

The 2 statements are simply at odds with each other.

[a] Jacob Rees-Mogg said he stood by claims of pro-Brexit bias in UK Treasury.

[b] leaked government report that found that growth would be lower in three different Brexit outcomes than if the UK remained in the EU.

Do they just cut n paste and make it up ?

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:45 AM CET

Alistair Walker

Thanks for pointing this out. We have now corrected and updated the article accordingly.

Jos Kuipers

Jos Kuipers

Why do my post that shows the blatant contradictions in this article keep dissapearing?

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:49 AM CET

wow

@GuptaG
Go back to your stinking country and worship your cows. And with cows i meant your mother and your grandmothers.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:56 AM CET

Jos Kuipers

Article claims a Pro-Brexit bias in UK Treasury.
And to make it happen the article says the treasury produces negative impact studies.
Very strange article with conflicting claims.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 10:59 AM CET

kermelen

What a pathetic argument: well-seasoned figures are ideological spin when wet finger guesses are adequate as long as the wind blows from the ultra-right.

When you don’t like the message shoot the messenger. Hard Brexiters must see they are losing their no-deal exit arguments to take aim at the civil services like this.

They are seated naked on the Brexit bomb they did armed and know it will soon explode to their face. They desperately try to scapegoat someone else.

They can’t blame the EU on this, so it must be the civil services indeed. Civil servants supposedly opposed to the “radical” changes the ultra-right envisioned for the country.

Radical changes so similar to Lenin’s “New Politics” of 1921 or Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” that killed millions in 1958.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:05 AM CET

Anthony Chambers

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:13 AM CET

kermelon

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:14 AM CET

Capt Europe

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:15 AM CET

Jos Kuipers

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:18 AM CET

Guesswhat

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:19 AM CET

tpk

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:20 AM CET

John COjones

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:20 AM CET

dc

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:22 AM CET

crispin hythe

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:22 AM CET

crispin hythe

Lordy lordy, BREXIT must be stopped !

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:24 AM CET

tpk

@tpk

Haven’t written that but I’d sign it. Who is the author: somebody who wrote pro Brexit here (in a moderate way of course) and can not admit that at least part of him is changing its mind?

Posted on 2/4/18 | 11:37 AM CET

crispin hythe

kermelen
“Radical changes so similar to Lenin’s “New Politics” of 1921 or Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” that killed millions in 1958.”

Who are you to talk, who do you think killed 100 millions in 1914-1918 and in 1938-1945.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 12:39 PM CET

DUPer

Looking at Jacob’s face makes me believe that his mother should have aborted him. One should not breed offsprings with such physiognomy.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 3:40 PM CET

Jos Kuipers

@admins: how do i change my username to Geert Wilders?

Posted on 2/4/18 | 3:41 PM CET

BlahBlahBlah

@EUHoo
@Priscilla do Boy
@XKM
And many others…

An Internet troll is someone who comes into a discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation. Often, in fact, it seems like there is no real purpose behind their comments except to upset everyone else involved. Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response.

What kind of person would do this? Some Canadian researchers decided to find out.

They conducted two online studies with over 1,200 people, giving personality tests to each subject along with a survey about their Internet commenting behavior. They were looking for evidence that linked trolling with the “Dark Tetrad” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.

They found that Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite Internet activity. To get an idea of how much more prevalent these traits were among Internet trolls, see this figure from the paper:

Look at how low the Dark Tetrad scores are for everyone except the trolls! Their scores for all four traits soar on the chart. The relationship between trolling and the Dark Tetrad is so significant that the authors write in their paper:
“… the associations between sadism and GAIT (Global Assessment of Internet Trolling) scores were so strong that it might be said that online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists.” [emphasis added].

Trolls truly enjoy making you feel bad. To quote the authors once more (because this is a truly quotable article): “Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just want to have fun … and the Internet is their playground!”

The next time you encounter a troll online, remember:
1.These trolls are some truly difficult people.
2.It is your suffering that brings them pleasure, so the best thing you can do is ignore them.

Adios.

Posted on 2/4/18 | 7:33 PM CET

Anthony Chambers

The EU will bow to the UK’s demands ! …. like i bend in the dark of a back alley to my customers ….

Posted on 2/5/18 | 6:31 AM CET

keepheadingear

JRM: ““I am confident that the UK’s medium-term fiscal prospects are much better than those that will be revealed to you by the OBR’s short-term projections,” he said.
This sounds very much like an economic forecast. Could someone please challenge him on this forecast and work through his assumptions and the plausibility of it?
Everyone focuses on the three scenarios provided by the Treasury, but no one checks out the “thriving future” forecast supported by Liam Fox and JRM.

Posted on 2/5/18 | 10:51 AM CET

bluebell

@Jos Kuipers
“This has to be the worst ant-uk / anti-british website I have ever seen.”

Jos, we have broad shoulders and will weather the hits. Look on the bright side while they are picking on the UK they are leaving others alone.

Perhaps this could be the original meaning of solidarity (taking a hit to spare others less able to defend themselves) as opposed to the more recent misuse by politician who distort its meaning for short term political gain.